Norsat ATOM Ku-Band BUC 20W

Operator’s Manual

The information in this document has been fully reviewed and is believed to be entirely reliable. However, Norsat International Inc., hereinafter referred to as Norsat, reserves the right to modify any products to improve reliability, function, or design. Norsat does not assume any liability arising out of the application or use of any product or circuit described herein. Norsat does not convey any license under its patent rights or the rights of others.

Technical Support

This manual provides engineers with information necessary to operate the applicable system. Technical support is available from Norsat.

Norsat International Inc.
Attn: Technical Support
110 – 4020 Viking Way
Richmond, BC
Main: 1 604-821-2800
Support: 1 800 644 4562
sat.support@norsat.com

Copyright Notice

NOTICE: Norsat International Inc. (“Norsat”) assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions that may appear in this publication. Norsat reserves the right to change this publication at any time, without notice. Copyright © 2021. Norsat International Inc. All rights reserved. All materials contained in this user guide are the property of Norsat International Inc. except as noted here below:

All materials in this user guide are protected by United States and international copyright laws. The compilation of all content in this user guide is the exclusive property of Norsat.

Introduction

OVERVIEW

This User’s Guide covers the following product lines:

ATOMSKU020, ATOMSKU025, ATOMSKU040, ATOMSKU050
ATOMBKU020, ATOMBKU025, ATOMBKU040, ATOMBKU050

BUC – Block Up Converter and Amplifier

If this unit is a BUC, this unit converts IF to RF in the KU range for the frequencies specified in the original configuration of this unit and amplifies the power to the specified power.

SSPA – Solid State Power Amplifier

If this unit is an SSPA only, this unit amplifies the input signal to the specified power.

FEATURES

Inputs and Outputs

Table 1-1: Input and Outputs

| 20W / 25W / 40W / 50W
---|---
Input Type| Female N-Type Connector
Output Type| Waveguide WR75 (default)
Waveguide WR62
(Adaptors are available to convert output type to SMA, TNC, or N-Type connectors. Please contact Norsat for more information.)

Electrical Interface

M&C Connector – ten pin connector used to interface to a host computer. See Chapter 2 for detailed description of pin outs.

Power Connector – four pin connector used to provide power to unit. See Chapter 2 for detailed description of pin outs.

Fuse

On units equipped with the EMC/EMI filter option there is a fuse on the SAT-3300 (PCBA 039301) board.
Reference designator is F1, Bel Fuse Inc. SMM 25 rated for 25A.

Cautions and Warnings

WARNING

| Power to the unit must be shut off before the DC cable is disconnected and the DC cable and M&C cable must be disconnected before servicing.

WARNING

| Do not allow equipment to be standing in water.
While the BUC/SSPA is designed to be used outdoors, the equipment is not designed to operate in standing water. Failure to follow this precaution could result in electric shock and injury to persons.

CAUTION

| Do not allow any items to fall into the unit from the waveguide opening.

CAUTION

| Apply voltage to the AC/DC input connector only as specified in the original configuration of this unit. The application of a voltage outside the specified range may cause the unit to become damaged or non-functional.

CAUTION

| Do not stand in front of waveguide during operation. Especially, do not look into the waveguide.

CAUTION

| Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can damage electronic circuits.
The M&C and RF input connector center pins may be sensitive to ESD. Follow proper ESD precautions when handling these products.

Installation and Interface

Overview

The unit has three connectors on the input side of the housing and one waveguide port on the output side.

The interface for these connectors is detailed in this document.

On the input side, there are the following connectors:

J1 – Female N-type L-band IF Input
J2 – Ten pin circular connector
J3 – Four pin circular power connector

On the output side, there is one connector:

J4 – WR75 or WR62 waveguide RF output (specify at time of order)

Mechanical Installation

The units are designed to be mounted via 6-32 size screws which must be supplied by the end user. There are a number of 6-32 UNC threaded holes on each face of the main housing to facilitate mounting in many different applications and in any orientation; please refer to Appendix A for exact mounting hole locations.
The preferred mounting scheme is to fix the ATOM to the larger assembly using at least four mounting points on each of two opposite sides of the unit. Other arrangements are possible depending on the requirements of the application; please contact Norsat technical support for details. Please leave at least 1 inch of clearance around the fan air intakes.

The unit is entirely watertight and suitable for outdoor operation. All joints are O-ring sealed. The waveguide port J4 is not internally sealed, so the antenna feed must be sealed with a radome or window, and all waveguide joints should be O-ring sealed if water-tightness is required.

J1 – Input

BUC

The IF input is a 50 ohm type-N connector. The input is to be applied here (950-1700 MHz for Extended Band; 950-1450 MHz for Regular Band). Also, the 10 MHz signal input is diplexed onto this line. Therefore, the IF signal and 10 MHz reference are both traveling on this line. The connector is DC-blocked. Do not exceed +/- 50VDC on this port.

The 10-MHz signal should be accurate within +/-20ppm, otherwise the BUC may have difficulty phase locking to it. The 10-MHz should be free of sideband spurs, particularly close-in (under 100 kHz), as these may also cause failure to lock. Power level of the 10 MHz reference signal should be +/-10 dBm.

SSPA

In the SSPA-only configuration, this is the RF input. It is a precision type-N connector, with performance to 18GHz. No 10 MHz reference is required for SSPA-only operation.

J2 – Monitor and Control Interface

The serial interface is used to interface the unit to a host computer. All on- board sensors are read through this interface, including forward power monitoring. In default mute configuration (refer to section Pin D: Shutdown (i.e. Mute Control)), use of this connection is optional.

Pin Outs

The monitor and control interface is a ten pin connector

CAUTION: EXTREME CARE MUST BE USED WITH THIS CONNECTOR TO AVOID ELECTRO STATIC DISCHARGE (ESD). Many units have been damaged by improper ESD precautions. Always use industry standard practices including wrist straps when coming within six inches of these connectors or any accessories or cables to be attached to this.

The connector is a cannon type connector with a 12-10 configuration with pins (Amphenol part number 71- 533723-10P). This connector is a MIL-C-26482 Series 1 receptacle, Shell size 12, 10 pins. The connector is a “receptacle” and it has pins (as opposed to sockets), and requires the mating connector to be a “plug” with ten sockets. An example mating connector would be Amphenol

PT06A-12-10S. A range of other plug-compatible Amphenol part numbers for the

mating connector may be used to add options to the plug such as right-angle, stress relief clamp, metal color/finish, etc. Please contact the connector manufacturer for more information and/or see Amphenol catalog 12-070.

The pinouts are given in Table 2-1 and shown in Figure 2-1.

Table 2-1: J2 Pin Outs

Pin D: Shutdown (i.e. Mute Control)

This pin implements the shutdown, or mute function, and the user should apply Ground to this pin to mute the amplifier. When muted, the unit power transistors are turned off, reducing power consumption and giving an RF output noise close to the thermal noise floor.

Pin D has an internal 50K-ohm resistor that can be configured as a pull-up to 4V, or as a pull down to ground. Because of the configurable pull-up / pull- down resistor, the unit can be configured to be active (i.e. not muted) when Pin D is left open circuited, therefore, no connection is necessary on pin D for the amplifier to operate normally.

Pin D is also configurable to be either active high or active low. When configured as active high, any voltage between 3.0 V and 5.0 V (relative to case ground) will mute the output. When configured as active low, any voltage between 0.0 V and 0.8 V (relative to case ground) will mute the output.

The case ground may be connected at any location on the outer metal shell of the unit.

Pin G: GND

Ground is connected to the amplifier housing. This pin is electrically connected to the outer aluminum shell and thus to the mounting screws used to hold down the unit. This is for small signal only; any high-current connections should use the external screws on the outside of the aluminum case.

Pin A, B, C, J: RS-485

These four pins form a standard RS-485 port, with RX+, RX-, TX+, TX-. Use Pin G as the ground reference for this port.

TX+ and TX- are the differential pair which carries a signal from the host computer to the unit. RX+ and RX are the differential pair which carries a signal from the unit to the host computer. Ensure these are connected to the host computer RS-485 port accordingly.

• A TX- (RS-485) Host computer TX- signal (signal into unit)
• B TX+ (RS-485) Host computer TX+ signal (signal into unit)
• C RX+ (RS-485) Host computer RX+ signal (signal out of unit)
• J RX- (RS-485) Host computer RX- signal (signal out of unit)

Pin E, F: RS-232

Pins E and F form a standard RS-232 port, with RX and TX. Use Pin G as the ground reference for this
port. Ensure these are connected to the host computer RS-232 port accordingly.

• E RX (RS-232) Host computer RX signals (signal out of unit)
• F TX (RS-232) Host computer TX signals (signal into unit)

Serial Port Software Interface

Communications to and from the serial interface is character based. Use any standard “Terminal” program with setup parameters as shown in Figure 2-2.

Controller Responses

The unit will only generate messages in response to a command. Each command received will result in a single message reply, which may simply be an Acknowledge message.
In general, command responses are returned immediately, though the precise command-response delay varies slightly based on the specific command.

Message Definitions

getident

This command returns the part number, software revision and serial number of the unit.

getstatus

This command instructs the unit to respond with fault flag, forward power and temperature. Note: reverse power, “revpwr”, in the response is a future enhancement and is not currently supported.

• A “0” after “fault” indicates no faults. A “1” indicates a fault. Use command “getfaults” to determine what fault exists.
• Power is in dBm.
• Temperature is in degrees C. The temperature scale is from –55 to 150 C, with approximately +/- 2 degrees C accuracy.
  

getfaults

This command gets the status of the mute, over temperature and pll loss of lock.

For mute, “0” indicates the unit is in an unmuted state. A “1” indicates a muted state. Note that a “1” does not necessarily indicate an error as the unit could have been commanded into a mute state (see “setmute” command).

For over temp and pll, a value of “0” means no error and a value of “1” indicates an error.

reset faults

This command clears faults under certain conditions. Note that the “mute” fault code indicates muted state, not necessarily an error. Since the unit can be commanded into mute state, without a fault, the “reset faults” command will not clear a mute fault in this situation.

The temperature sensor has a trip point (above which a fault is triggered) and a reset point (below which a fault is automatically cleared.) The reset point is set below the trip point to provide hysteresis. See Table 2-2 for Trip and Reset Points.

The reset faults command will clear an overtemp fault which has been tripped if the unit is currently below the trip point. If the fault mode sensor value is above the trip point, the fault cannot be cleared. Some faults may not have a reset point, and must be reset through the “reset faults” command.

Table 2-2: Fault Trip and Reset Points

setmute

This command sets the software mute state of the unit. If the command code is 1, the amplifier will be muted. If the command code is 0, the amplifier mute will be controlled as shown in Section Mute Logic. The mute state can be monitored by examining the MUTE code in the “getfaults” message. ‘

Command Response

The CLI operates on a command response format. Each time a command is entered, a response will be displayed. If a command executed correctly, an “ok” along with potential parameters and values will be displayed. Otherwise, “err” will be displayed along with a description of the error.

The potential errors that may be displayed are:

• Invalid Command – The command was not recognized
• Invalid Parameter – The parameter was not recognized
• Invalid Value – The value was invalid for the command/parameter
• Missing Parameter – A required parameter was not provided

Each command response will have the following format: